In a statement on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Collins laid out her reasons for opposing the appointment of Betsy DeVos.
“I know that Mrs. DeVos cares deeply about children. I recognize that she has devoted much time and resources to try to improve the education of at-risk children in cities whose public schools have failed them,” Sen. Collins said in her remarks on Wednesday. “Nevertheless, like all of us, Mrs. DeVos is the product of her experience. ”
“Her concentration on charter schools and vouchers, however, raises question about whether or not she fully appreciates that the secretary of education’s primary focus must be on helping states… strengthen our public schools. ”
Sen. Collins specifically said that she does not think DeVos has the necessary experience to help rural schools, such as those in Maine.
She ended her remarks by saying that she will send DeVos’s nomination to the full Senate, so every senator will have the opportunity to debate DeVos’s merits.
“But I will not, I cannot, vote to confirm her as our nation’s next secretary of education,” said Sen. Collins.
Sen. Collins, who calls herself a moderate Republican, has gone against her party’s stance in the past. During the 2016 election cycle, she announced that she would not be voting for now President Donald Trump , saying she did not believe he had the “temperament” to lead the nation.
Over the last few weeks, Sen. Collins’s office was inundated with calls, many of them asking her to reject President Trump’s cabinet nominees. While the senior senator said she will vote “no” on Betsy DeVos for education secretary, she was a vocal supporter of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.
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Copyright 2016 WCSH
